Miroslav Holub (1923-1998), Poet and Immunologist

Miroslav Holub became a friend when I was working in Prague.

We also spent time with another (visiting) friend, a great poet with related scientific and medical interests, Dr. Dannie Abse, who once wrote, in his poem, Lunch with a Pathologist (not about Holub),

"My colleague knows by heart the morbid verse
Of facts..."

These are rather sombre poems for our times:


A Helping Hand, translated by George Theiner


A helping hand

We gave a helping hand to grass –
and it turned into corn.
We gave a helping hand to fire –
and it turned into a rocket.
Hesitatingly,
cautiously,
we give a helping hand
to people,
to some people…

From Haemophilia/ Los Angeles

Translated by David Young and Dana Hábová

And so it circulates

from San Bernardino Freeway

to the Santa Monica Freeway and

down to the San Diego Freeway and

up to the Golden State Freeway...

each blood cell carrying

four molecules of hope

that it might all be something

totally different

from what it is.

From Vanishing Lung Syndrome

Translated by David Young and Dana Hábová

Once in a while somebody fights for breath.

He stops, getting in everyone's way.

The crowd flows around, muttering

about the flow of crowds,

but he just fights for breath.

From Interferon

Translated by David Young and Dana Hábová

Always just one demon in the attic.

Always just one death in the village...

Likewise, cells infected by a virus

send signals out, defenses

are mobilized, and no other virus

gets a chance to settle down

and change the destiny. This phenomenon

is called interference.


Finally, a short poem by Dannie Abse:


Valediction

In this exile people call old age
I live between nostalgia and rage.
This is the land of fools and fear.
Thanks be. I'm lucky to be here.